I really struggled with what to rate this. There’s a lot of graphic violence, on-page rape, slurs, homophobia, etc, etc. I’m not sure if I feel that it’s worth it for the message of the story. Otherwise I think I’d give this 4 stars or higher. So I’m really on the fence!

It was a brutal book in terms of content but also, as others have noted, in style. The chapters are long and consist of one paragraph. There are many very long run on sentences. This is a writerly decision, of course, and my sense is that it was meant to enhance the brutality of what you are reading. The reading process itself is relentless.

Despite all that, I found it very readable. I got through it very quickly.

I think Melchor did such a good job really diving into the mind of each character. The chapters each focus on a different person in the village, revealing more about them and the murder of the Witch. I felt like, whether or not I liked each person, I understood how they saw the world. Poverty and neglect has warped them for the most part - into victims or perpetrators. Super bleak read!

Favorite quotes:

Because I never wanted kids, and your boyfriend in there knows it only too well because you’ve got to be open about these things, why go around playing the martyr, better to be open and say it how it is and for everyone to be on the same page: this children business is bullshit, bull-fucking-shit; there’s no way to dress it up: in the end, all kids are a burden, spongers, parasites who suck the life and all your blood from you. And to top it off they don’t appreciate any of the sacrifices you’ve got no choice but to make for them.

That’s what the women in town say: there is no treasure in there, no gold or silver or diamonds or anything more than a searing pain that refuses to go away.

The rain can’t hurt you now, and the darkness doesn’t last forever. See there? See that light shining in the distance? The little light that looks like a star? That’s where you’re headed, he told them, that’s the way out of this hole.